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text:
New Zealand Post wishes to further advise the designated operators of UPU member countries that Auckland Airport's aviation fuel rationing will continue into next week and that work is ongoing to restore the damaged pipeline. Airlines are able to access only 30% of their normal fuel allocations.
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subset: commoncrawl


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New Indie RPG released - The Blight
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Topic: New Indie RPG released - The Blight (Read 15255 times)
Posts: 7
New Indie RPG released - The Blight
January 19, 2011, 11:49:00 AM »
I have just released a new indie RPG for electronic download - The Blight
A fantasy world but with a frightening twist of reality where you play a survivor with full control over your life � except for The Blight.
Monsters and nightmares are no longer a mythical horror � they could be your neighbour!
Driven by the Multiverse game system � a cinematic system designed to give the player full control over what their character does � you will play in a world where one mistake could spell the end of everything.
Play a vagabond intent on gaining power and wealth for your own selfish ends or play a hero of the finest cut who has chosen to struggle to find a cure for this worlds woes.
The world of The Blight is a world inhabited by refugees from across the Multiverse � from escaped slaves to beings so powerful some call them Gods.
The game has taken me about 10 years to get to this stage and there is a sourcebook with rules system and background and the first scenario out.
There are currently 2 further supplements and 2 further scenarios planned.
I hope this is ok to post here and people will support the site.
Posts: 280
Re: New Indie RPG released - The Blight
Reply #1 on:
January 19, 2011, 11:59:51 AM »
Hi Iain,
I'm having a very hard time navigating your site. I found a PDF with an intro bit but no mechanics, and hidden in the upper corner, (dark font on dark background!) a link to a character sheet?
Can you tell us more (or link) to how your game works and what help in development you're looking for?
Ron Edwards
Global Moderator
Posts: 17707
Re: New Indie RPG released - The Blight
Reply #2 on:
January 19, 2011, 12:43:38 PM »
Hi Iain,
Welcome to the Forge. It's kind of a nice return to Forge roots to see Multiverser stuff discussed here.
This particular forum is intended to house
about developing a game. Is The Blight still in development? Is there anything you can tell us about how playtesting has gone, or what features of Multiverser have been brought forward?
Best, Ron
Posts: 7
Re: New Indie RPG released - The Blight
Reply #3 on:
January 19, 2011, 01:59:06 PM »
Quote from: Chris_Chinn on January 19, 2011, 11:59:51 AM
Hi Iain,
I'm having a very hard time navigating your site. I found a PDF with an intro bit but no mechanics, and hidden in the upper corner, (dark font on dark background!) a link to a character sheet?
Ok I've changed the link colour to a lighter one.
Can you tell us more (or link) to how your game works and what help in development you're looking for?
Posts: 7
Re: New Indie RPG released - The Blight
Reply #4 on:
January 19, 2011, 02:01:40 PM »
Quote from: Ron Edwards on January 19, 2011, 12:43:38 PM
This particular forum is intended to house
about developing a game. Is The Blight still in development? Is there anything you can tell us about how playtesting has gone, or what features of Multiverser have been brought forward?
The system is my own - Multiverse. Is there another called Multiverser?
Basically I have developed the game and the system completely now (as completely as it will be for now anyway)
I am now ready to publish and release
Gregor Hutton
Posts: 366
Re: New Indie RPG released - The Blight
Reply #5 on:
January 20, 2011, 03:52:36 AM »
Ah, I too thought it was referring to MJ Young's Multiverser.
You can read about Multiverser on the Wikipedia page
or at the sites linked from it.
3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars
Ron Edwards
Global Moderator
Posts: 17707
Re: New Indie RPG released - The Blight
Reply #6 on:
January 20, 2011, 05:38:50 AM »
Let's focus this thread.
1. It can be about publishing (based on the last post) or development, and either way, belongs in the right forum. Darkvell, this is a discussion site, not a place for press releases. We can help you with your publishing decisions by providing information and accounts of our own experiences. Is that what you'd like?
2. It cannot continue in its current form because it does not meet forum requirements. The rules for what's required in each forum are posted as the first thread in each one.
3. My perception is that Darkvell is trying to participate here but is very uncertain about how. The distraction about Multiverser, which was my fault, is not helping and needs to be abandoned immediately.
No more posting from anyone besides Darkvell until he or she answers my question #1.
Best, Ron
Posts: 7
Re: New Indie RPG released - The Blight
Reply #7 on:
January 20, 2011, 06:19:39 AM »
Quote from: Ron Edwards on January 20, 2011, 05:38:50 AM
Let's focus this thread.
1. It can be about publishing (based on the last post) or development, and either way, belongs in the right forum. Darkvell, this is a discussion site, not a place for press releases. We can help you with your publishing decisions by providing information and accounts of our own experiences. Is that what you'd like?
Hi Ron Thanks for the clarification (and accurate analysis). The game is "developed" (as far as it can be at any one time) and I am happy to do this side of things. Where I am in desperate need of advice and help is in the publishing and basically "Where to go from here?" question.
I hope this is the right place for that.
Ron Edwards
Global Moderator
Posts: 17707
Re: New Indie RPG released - The Blight
Reply #8 on:
January 20, 2011, 06:58:33 AM »
Whoops again - "darkveil" not "vell" - geez. Let me know your first name if that's OK by you, because I am very awful with internet handles. Oh shoot! you did. Damn I am getting senile.
Got it.
So, yes, you are in the right place, or so I hope after ten-plus years of draining my energies into it for this purpose. The issues are:
- final writing, layout, physical design
- product: print, electronic, both, something else
- if print: on-demand vs. traditional, local vs. off-shore
Venue for sales
- on-line
- retail
- other (e.g. conventions)
Primary financial return
- direct sales
- distributor-mediated sales
Legalities and finances
- copyright and trademark decisions
- payment for services (art, layout, et cetera)
- managing the books
- taxes
A lot of the above issues use specialized vocabulary that doesn't always make literal sense. For example, "direct" sales include retailer sales if you didn't use a distributor to get the books to the retailer; and "print on demand" includes short (in the 100's) print runs. So it's probably best to pick one thing at a time and dig into the commonly-used terms and the current means of checking out the options.
Here are some points which I've found are most important to keep in mind throughout the whole thing.
1. Many of the above options are not exclusive. It's not a matter of using stores and only stores, vs. using your own on-line sales page. You can do both. The issue is how
of your business you want to conduct in which venue.
2. Details and options change at least yearly, if not seasonally. So I can't recommend "the" printer or "the" way to do things; we have to find out which ones are most troublesome or immediate for you and then open it up for multi-publisher discussion here.
3. You may find that you are not ready to launch yet. As examples, many people who arrive here with similar announcements have, upon inquiry, not playtested their game outside themselves and a couple of friends at most; or they have spent a ton of money on art and have no idea how to make a printable file out of it, and have not yet begun layout. I'm not saying this is your status because I don't know; I
saying that it's wise to be prepared for such discoveries and not to be committed at this moment to a particular production date.
4. "Success" is defined by you and by you alone. There is no magic number of books sold or money made that applies to everyone. Although no one here expects you to agree with their personal benchmark, we need to know more about yours to help you.
I'll make the already-presumptuous assumption that you do not want actually to beggar yourself by doing this, and that you do not want to print up a zillion books only to have to mulch them to avoid paying inventory taxes a year later. These are real-world, actual possibilities if you go into this blindly, and we definitely can help you avoid them.
Welcome to the Forge!
Best, Ron
Posts: 7
Re: New Indie RPG released - The Blight
Reply #9 on:
January 21, 2011, 08:12:52 AM »
hey Ron
Thanks for the direction - glad I'm in the right place.
So to try and get some sort of idea out there as to where I am in the process.
1. I currently have a sourcebook and a first (introductory) scenario done (done explained below)
2. I have a website with all the commerce stuff and coding sorted. Commerce via paypal - automated scripting to provide secure downloads.
3. I have 3 supplements and 2 more scenarios in production.
So on to the "done" word.
The system and background setting is complete and play-tested. The layout is done to a good standard and the PDF is pretty professional (IMO). I am not 100% happy with the artwork, but that was because I had to do it all myself and didn't have an artist on hand.
I am confident that the system stands up. The issue lies with whether the write up in the sourcebook is sufficient to relay this to the reader. I took the call that I would not truly be able to answer this question with the resources I had without releasing it to a larger audience, getting feedback and then releasing updates. It was because of this that I decided to go down the independent online PDF route with the intention of hopefully building a small community where I could address any issue that arose.
Where do I want to get to?
I want to publish a darn good RPG. I would love to see it in print (what writer wouldn't) but thats about it. If I could get a solid community and following for the game without charging for it I would, but I cant afford to so I have 2 choices (as I see it):
1. Sell enough on line to fund a independent print run and try and distribute it independently.
2. Attract the interest of a publishing house and hope they run with it.
So that is where I am with all my (admittedly un-informed) thoughts.
I would be really interested in anyone elses opinion and in fact I am probably a bit pathetically keen to follow someone else advice.
Many thanks in advance.
Posts: 280
Re: New Indie RPG released - The Blight
Reply #10 on:
January 21, 2011, 08:59:06 AM »
Hi Iain,
A third option for getting into print is to use a print on demand publisher like Lulu.com. Lots of folks here have used lulu or similar services and it works well - customers order from the site, they print up the book and send it to the customer, the fees for printing are taken out, and you get your money. You keep all of your copyrights, and can even amend or change things fairly easily as they print from PDFs that you upload. (Do a search for "roleplaying games" on Lulu, you'll see a lot of them!)
Granted, POD sites cost significantly more per unit than traditional printing, but it does mean that you're not paying for printing up front, warehouse/storage fees, shipping, or inventory tax.
As far as building community, the #1 thing which we've seen work over time is actual play! Posting about your actual play, having your players/playtest groups talk about it, running demos or full sessions at conventions, etc. When people talk about what your game does well, and differently than other games, it draws attention. (When people talk about what your game doesn't do well, it can also draw good attention- sometimes a negative review sparks people going, "But, that's TOTALLY the game I want!" - Burning Wheel has this experience a lot on forums like rpg.net.)
Nathan P.
Posts: 590
emotional game design
Re: New Indie RPG released - The Blight
Reply #11 on:
January 21, 2011, 11:21:06 AM »
Iain, you may also want to look at OneBookShelf (which operates
), as they are the largest PDF "distributor" and just started a print-on-demand service as well. So, it's a way to get your work out in front of more eyeballs, and then provide customers with a choice of PDF or a printed book, without any additional cost to you. Of course, you'll get less of each sale (they take about 30% of cover for PDF downloads, I dont know what the cut is for POD), but I've found that OneBookShelf sales seem to be in addition to my direct sales, not replacing them (that is, I haven't had a downturn in direct sales since I started offering PDFs on OBS).
Also, one of the most convenient tools they offer is that you can send updated PDFs to everyone who's bought one in the past with one button-click. Worth keeping in mind if you're planning on updating your PDFs over time.
If your goal is to spend the minimum of money on publishing while getting it out there, the model of PDF/POD sales + enthusiastic support and actual play is pretty well-traveled ground around these parts.The key determinate is getting the word out (whether by AP reports, reviews, paid advertising, convention presence, word-of-mouth in other venues, and so on)
Nathan P.
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Posts: 7
Re: New Indie RPG released - The Blight
Reply #12 on:
January 31, 2011, 03:37:22 AM »
Many thanks for all the suggestions - I have created a PDF for Lulu and am looking at the OneBookShelf option - it seems reasonable.
What about a 3rd option? Has anyone had any success getting a 3rd party publisher of games to take things of this sort? And if so any lists available that I can tout round with proof copy?
Many thanks
Ron Edwards
Global Moderator
Posts: 17707
Re: New Indie RPG released - The Blight
Reply #13 on:
January 31, 2011, 06:28:26 AM »
Hi Iain,
That third option exists, as the default as many see it. This website includes the mission of repudiating that viewpoint. My take, and that of the co-founder (Ed Healy), his successor and founder of the current format (Clinton Nixon), and my current partner (Vincent Baker), is that this option is universally abusive to the author of the game. No matter how much yipyap about IP is involved, or royalties deals, or anything like that. The Forge is about
owning what you create.
I'm not going to preach at you about it, nor do I think you should stop information-gathering. But I strongly advise you to look past the blandishments and promises, to examine what really happens when people let others take over their work, and to compare it with what can happen when you maintain full control. In this hobby, anyone and everyone can publish, and there is no special Guy who can make or break you, or act as your angel into "real" publishing. I suggest that in the short or long run, people who pose as this Guy screw the author, every time.
Best, Ron
Posts: 7
Re: New Indie RPG released - The Blight
Reply #14 on:
January 31, 2011, 07:58:07 AM »
Hi Ron
I see what you are saying - having done some by-the-word writing in the past i know how poor the returns are and how little your work is respected. Based on this I am more than happy to explore other avenues. With some of the sites that the guys above have mentioned, it really is possible to publish yourself (which it wasn't 10 years ago), but the problem I see is how do you get your game noticed. If you go the way of the publisher then that becomes their problem (which I am sure they sting you heavily for). I am more than happy to give the game away for free if I think it would actually help it take off, but this is self-defeating if it does not produce a core of gamers and a critical mass.
I guess it all comes down to spreading the word
Hmmm. All very tricky
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Carson City woman arrested on suspicion of maintaining a drug house
The following people were booked into the Carson City Jail. All are considered innocent until proven guilty in court.
Two people were arrested after deputies were called to an apartment on Jeanell Drive by the manager because of the strong smell of marijuana. Stacy Babb, 21, was arrested on suspicion of maintaining a drug house after a search revealed marijuana paraphernalia in what the arrest report described as an apartment that was "in complete disarray appearing as if trash bags had been dumped in every room." Bail was set at $20,000. She also was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia after a test on a pipe revealed marijuana residue.
In addition to Babb, Michael Carpenter, 18, was arrested on suspicion of felony possession of meth after a test of a substance in his pocket came back positive for the drug. His bail was set at $2,500.
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Former Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal resigns as provincial candidate amid tax-evasion charges
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Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013
B.C. Liberal Party candidate Sukh Dhaliwal (Newton-North Delta) - submitted
Former Surrey MP Sukh Dhaliwal resigned Friday as a B.C. Liberal candidate in the coming provincial election over revelations he's facing charges under the Income Tax Act.
An emotional Dhaliwal addressed a hastily called news conference at the Grand Taj Banquet Hall in Surrey, where just days earlier he held a fundraiser with Premier Christy Clark attended by 800 supporters.
Dhaliwal's resignation came hours after the B.C. Liberals announced a review of his candidacy and confirmed that he only notified the party of the tax charges after The Vancouver Sun obtained the court documents and called for comment.
Still Dhaliwal insisted he was not pushed, but had decided with his family that he should quit the campaign.
"The last two days has been very difficult — extremely difficult — for myself and my family," Dhaliwal said. "My reason for stepping aside is I want to make sure that I take care of the outstanding matters that are in front of the courts."
Dhaliwal said he didn't know about the six charges, sworn on Oct. 15, until the end of November after he had already been named the candidate for Surrey-Panorama on Oct. 31, 2012.
But he wouldn't answer questions about when he knew he was under investigation for missing corporate tax records or why he didn't go public sooner.
"I am coming clean. I told the party and I consulted with my lawyer. The case is in the court and my lawyer at that time gave me an assurance that this will be resolved in no time," Dhaliwal said. "Certainly it is taking time and that is why I am taking this decision today."
He said he didn't want his tax troubles to be a distraction from "those issues that are important to British Columbians" or to his fellow Liberal candidates.
Dhaliwal made a first appearance on the six charges in Surrey Provincial Court Nov. 26 and was arraigned Dec. 17. The case was back in court again this week and put over to Feb. 21.
The charges relate to Dhaliwal's position as president of Genco Consultants Inc., which was founded on Nov. 26, 1999 as a numbered company.
The two-page court document alleges Dhaliwal violated section 238 (1) of the Income Tax Act when "on or about Dec. 23, 2011, [he] did unlawfully direct, authorize, asset to, acquiesce in or participate in Genco Consultant's failure to file a completed Corporate Income Tax Return or T2."
There is a separate count with identical wording for each of the years 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. Each count also says that Dhaliwal was "served personally" with a notice of requirement to file on Aug. 24, 2011.
Asked Friday about the notice given to him in 2011, Dhaliwal said only: "There is no investigation from CRA."
Also on Friday, he suggested that others were behind the missing tax filings, though he has not named anyone else involved in Genco. Only he and his wife Roni are listed as directors on corporate records.
"When I look at those charges that are in front of the court, they are not anywhere (me) shirking my physical responsibility, but they are because of the difficulty of obtaining information from other sources," Dhaliwal said, without providing further explanation.
"When I look at any elected public servant — or the person that is seeking an office . . . I see that those individuals have to be committed to the highest standards of behaviour," he said. "As a member of Parliament in the Canadian Parliament, I was committed to those principles and I lived those principles and today I am committed to those principles."
Dhaliwal ducked several tough questions from reporters.
Asked how he got into his tax problems in the first place, he said only: "We are all human beings and I tell you right now, I think people have to be brave. And I am brave enough, and my family is brave enough, to come out here today and be accountable to the people and to the media."
"And that's why I am standing in front of you not shirking away from my responsibility and telling you that I am stepping aside for one ... reason — that is to make sure that I am able to live those highest standards of behaviour to represent the public and come back to the public to seek any other office."
Asked if he would run again, Dhaliwal spoke of the years he has lived and worked in the community.
"People know I have worked very hard and this is the community where I raised my family and I am raising my family," he said. "And this is the community I love. And that is why I am taking this decision today to step aside to show them that I am one of those individuals that will never let my community down."
Dhaliwal was a Liberal MP for Surrey-Newton-North Delta from 2006 until 2011, when he was beaten by the NDP's Jinny Sims.
He was a key supporter of Clark's during the 2011 B.C. Liberal leadership race.
read my blog at vancouversun.com/therealscoop
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Dogs have become an important part of our culture and more and more places are starting to welcome and accommodate pets. It's becoming common to see hotels with dog beds, stores with water dishes out front and even car companies designing vehicles with pets in mind.
Religious groups are no exception. Churches have long held blessing of the animal events and some are even inviting pets to attend service. But some congregations are starting pet ministries in order to reach and connect with animal lovers on a new level.
Grace Church, a nondenominational Protestant congregation in the Saint Louis area, has a pet ministry that organizes pet-food drives, fundraisers for a local rescue group, pet therapy visits, a pet loss support group and a Bible study that discusses animal-related passages.
Other churches include animals for adoption in their weekly bulletins, host adoption events and run vaccine clinics.
Sign up for our newsletter and stay in the know.
As a testament to this growing trend, the Humane Society of the United States hired a liaison to religious communities in 2007. Now there are animal ministries in every state. Next month, the Humane Society will be launching a directory of affiliated ministries on their website.
We don't have a pet ministry at my church, but our animal events (blessing of the animals and a holiday "giving tree" that collects supplies for the local shelter) have inspired a lot of people in the congregation to share stories of beloved pets and connect with each other in a different way.
Animal lovers are an amazing community of people, so pet ministries seem like a great way to get like-minded people together for a good cause.
Does your church have a pet ministry?


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Marotta column for use no sooner than January 3
Last spring I saw a piece in The New Yorker that I wanted very much to save and write about here in the year's first week. Instead, I promptly lost it; and no, the magazine told me, the article was NOT available online, nor could I purchase a second copy since every last one was sold and gone. Then something wonderful happened: I went, one October day, to the eye doctors', and there in the waiting room sat that very issue, its address label showing it belonged not to this practice but to some private citizen like myself who, months before, must have carried it in to read as she waited, then left it behind for others to enjoy. Could I just … pocket it? I considered the question for oh, six or seven seconds before popping it in my bag to store this time in some really safe place, where I have since visited it repeatedly, relishing the lessons it holds about staying grateful and amazed by what life gives us. It stems from a series of interviews staff writer John Colapinto did with Paul McCartney, then on the brink of both turning 65 and releasing his latest album. "Memory Almost Full" manages to be at the same time upbeat and elegiac in tone, and if by some slim chance by the time Paul joins that Heavenly Choir science has NOT figured out a way for us all to re-assemble our dead selves and speak at our very own funerals, well, what he says here can stand as his valedictory. He says music just pours into his mind; all he does is try to catch it. These days he has both a very proficient classical guitarist and the latest in electronics to help him do this. Once, of course, he had his boyhood mate John Lennon. Paul met John when he was just 15. Then, riding the bus to school one day, he noticed a skinny 14-year-old who turned out to play the guitar like nobody's business. That was George. Someplace in there they met a lad named Ringo who could work miracles with the sticks, and the rest was history. The Beatles became a legend though not one of the four could read or write music. In his account of one of their interview sessions, Colapinto points to the lyrics of an especially autobiographical tune called "That Was Me," remarking that the song seems to express amazement at the life Paul has led. "That's exactly it, and I am amazed," responds Paul. "There were four people in the Beatles, and I was one of them. "There were two people in the Lennon-McCartney songwriting team, and I was one of them. "There was one guy who wrote 'Yesterday,' and I was him. One guy who wrote 'Let it Be,' 'Fool on the Hill," 'Lady Madonna – and I was him, too." He says any one of these things would be enough for any person's life, but to be involved in all of them is really "pretty surprising." "You have to pinch yourself," he says, and "that's what the song is about." I read these words last spring and again last fall and once again just this morning, and all I can say is this: If there's one way for me to start 2008, let it be like this. Let it be by following Paul's lead and remaining humbly grateful for every time I've made good use of my days here. In fact, I think I'll start making a list of those times now. You do that, too, how 'bout, and we'll meet here next week and see what we come up with. Write Terry at email@example.com, or c/o Ravenscroft Press, Box 270 Winchester, MA 01890.


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March 15
March 16 is Match Day
This year's Match Day Celebration will take place at noon in the MBRB. 165 fourth-year medical students (100 percent of the class) will find out tomorrow where they'll be spending the next few years of their medical training.
Bode, Pasricha win abstract awards at NC ACP Scientific Sessions
Michael Bode, MD, won the Best Clinical Vignette award for, "A case of late onset cardiomyopathy and carpal tunnel syndrome." Sarina Pasricha, MD, won the Best Basic Research award for, "Identification of QTLs for the phenotypes of XBP-1s and SOCS3 in a murine model of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease."
Training Workshop: Using the Allen Brain Atlas Online Public Resources
Join researchers from the Allen Institute for this training workshop demonstrating their online public resource for exploring gene expression in the nervous system. Basic data access, navigation and usability will be covered, as well as more sophisticated search and visualization features.
UNC Family Medicine releases 2011 Annual Report
Ranked number two in the country, UNC Family Medicine has earned a national leadership role in primary care research, education and patient care innovation. The 2011 Annual Report provides the details behind the department's tremendous success.
Tim Smith, MPA, selected for Jim Bernstein Community Health Leadership Fellowship
Tim Smith, MPA, is a program associate with UNC Family Medicine. He works with Carolina Health Net, a program which aims to create a high-quality cost effective system of care for the uninsured by providing access to a medical home, care coordination, medications, diagnostic, and specialty services. Carolina Health Net partners with UNC Health Care and Piedmont Health Services.
Discussion: Using teleheath technology for rehabilitation
This talk will provide an overview of telehealth technologies as applied to physical rehabilitation, the evidence for their efficacy, current challenges and directions for future development.
AHEC Medical Faculty Day on May 24
The 14 annual AHEC Medical Faculty Day will be held on Thursday, May 24, at The William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education in Chapel Hill.
Gershon receives NIH Mentored Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award
Timothy Gershon, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurology, has received a four-year National Institutes of Health Mentored Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award grant from the National Institute of Neurologic Disease and Stroke.
Drop-in photography session offered for School of Medicine faculty members
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UNC Horizons Annual Conference
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Office of Research March Newsletter
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NC AHEC Spring 2012 Newsletter
Articles include: Director's Message; Area L AHEC Initiative Receives Grant; Faculty/Resident Physician Pair Treat Underserved Population; MAHEC Names Jeffery Heck, MD, as President and Chief Executive Officer; Homeless For a Night; News Briefs; and Staff News and Awards.
School of Medicine again ranked second in primary care by U.S. News and World Report
The School was ranked second in Primary Care and 21st in research overall. Four specialty areas were also ranked, including Family Medicine, which ranked 2nd in America! The rankings are part of the U.S. News and World Report 2013 edition of "America's Best Graduate Schools."
Joint UNC-NCSU BME Rehabilitation Engineering Center Director Candidate Seminar
Gina Bertocci, PhD, PE, will present, "From Wheelchairs to Cruciate Ligaments and Humans to Dogs - The Many Faces of Rehabilitation Engineering."


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I would like to create a java code that connect to Html and does several things:
1. How ca i trigger a click on a button in the html?
2. When the button is pressed the html is exporting the data to an excel file by
popup a window (open, save, close window).
how can i cause the html not to open the popup window and always save the file,
or export the data to the java client.


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Petco will hold the grand opening of its new store at 3975 Cascades Blvd. in Brimfield neighborhood the weekend of February 9-10. The festivities feature all-day pet adoptions, giveaways and discounted services, and a variety of activities to introduce the new store and its team to the community.
The new Brimfield Petco will offer local pet parents everyday necessities and a wide-variety of high quality food options, including natural, organic and raw food selections. In addition, the store will proudly host numerous pet adoption events throughout the year to help local rescues and shelters find homes for the many animals in need. They will also host monthly Meet the Critters events, which are complimentary interactive educational forums for families such as the annual hit, Reptile Rally.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held at 8:55 a.m. Feb. 9. Beginning at 9 a.m. on Feb. 9 and 10, the first 100 Pals customers will receive a free $10 Petco gift card. Pet adoptions will be held all day.


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Ken holds a B.S. in physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is currently engaged in research on artificial intelligence and system modeling. Ken can be reached at [email protected] Rainer received his Ph.D. from the University of Stuttgart. Currently, he is a postdoctoral fellow at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley, California. He can be contacted at [email protected] or [email protected]
Since their inception three decades ago, genetic algorithms have evolved like the species they try to mimic. Just as competition drives each species to adapt to a particular environmental niche, so, too, has the pressure to find efficient solutions across the spectrum of real-world problems forced genetic algorithms to diversify and specialize. A genetic algorithm that is well adapted to solving a combinatorial task like the traveling salesman problem may fail miserably when used to minimize functions with real variables and many local minima. For the task of optimizing functions of real variables, Evolution Strategies (ES) have emerged as one of the fittest contenders for the title "King of the Jungle." Although they have been around in one form or another for about 30 years, these genetic algorithms for real numbers are still unknown to many investigators. Not only are ES significantly faster at numerical optimization than traditional genetic algorithms, they are also much more likely to find a function's true global optimum.
Until now, the price to be paid for an efficient numerical optimizer has been mathematical complexity. Differential Evolution (DE), however, is an exceptionally simple ES that promises to make fast and robust numerical optimization accessible to everyone. Remarkably, DE's main search engine can be easily written in less than 20 lines of C code and involves nothing more exotic than a uniform random-number generator and a few floating-point arithmetic operations.
Numerical Optimization
Nearly every engineering effort seeks to maximize a design's beneficial aspects while minimizing the impact of its undesirable features. As such, many scientific and engineering tasks can be formulated as optimization problems in which the minimum or maximum of an objective function with real parameters is sought. When the objective function is nonlinear and contains many real variables, the surface it defines often resembles a tortured, multidimensional landscape with many peaks and valleys. If the objective function is to be minimized, the goal of the optimization process will be to find the coordinates of the lowest point in the lowest valley.
Suppose, for example, the minimum value assumed by a spherical surface is sought. Example 1(a) illustrates this for a sphere in three dimensions. Thus, each potential solution consists of a vector with three real-valued components: X={X1,X2,X3}. The problem is to find a vector, Xmin, at which the function attains a minimum. Obviously, the 3-D sphere has a single minimum f(Xmin)=0, where Xmin={0,0,0}. While a local minimum like that of a sphere can easily be found by any method of steepest descent, finding the global minimum of a function with many local minima is fraught with pitfalls.
One way to optimize these "multimodal" functions is with nonrandom numerical techniques. The simplex method, the method of Nelder and Mead, and the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm are just a few of the most frequently used deterministic search algorithms. While these methods are effective on many problems, they seldom perform well on difficult optimizations. For large problems, random search or stochastic algorithms are often the only viable strategy. Randomization gives a search algorithm the ability to break the curse of dimensionality that makes nonrandom and exhaustive-search methods exponentially tedious on functions with many parameters. In exchange for their efficient search strategies, stochastic algorithms sacrifice the guarantee that their best solution is a true global optimum. Nevertheless, a stochastic algorithm's best result will almost certainly be better than one obtained with a nonrandom method when the problem at hand is nonlinear and has many variables.
Elements of a Genetic Algorithm
Genetic algorithms interpret the value of a function at a point as a measure of that point's fitness as an optimum. In maximization problems, "fitness" aptly describes a vector's suitability, since vectors with large objective function values are indeed the most fit. "Cost," however, is a better way to describe the objective function in minimization problems, since minimizing cost is more familiar than minimizing fitness. Maximization problems are easily transformed into minimization problems and vice versa, so we'll deal with one type of problem -- minimizing functions. Consequently, the objective function will henceforth be referred to as the "cost function." Guided by cost, genetic algorithms attempt to transform an initial population of randomly generated vectors into a solution vector through repeated cycles of mutation, recombination, and selection.
Mutation is an operation that makes small random alterations to one or more parameters of an existing population vector. In genetic algorithms that represent parameters as integer bit strings, mutation usually involves flipping a few randomly chosen bits. Mutation is crucial for maintaining diversity in a population, although excessive mutation, like that resulting from too much radiation, has the potential for erasing evolutionary progress. Even so, early attempts at numerical optimization with ES relied on mutation exclusively. Evolution by mutation alone is not without parallel in nature. For example, whiptail lizard populations are known to propagate by parthenogenesis, or self-cloning. Just as nature discovered the survival value of sex, researchers in ES realized that a faster and more robust algorithm results when a knowledge-sharing operator like recombination is used in conjunction with mutation.
Recombination (or crossover) provides an alternative and complementary means of creating viable vectors. Designed to resemble the natural process by which a child inherits DNA from its parents, recombination builds new parameter combinations from the components of existing vectors. A host of different recombination methods have been proposed, but each combines parameter values from two or more parents in its own characteristic way. One of the most frequently used schemes for numerical optimization is uniform crossover. In this form of recombination, the child inherits parameter values from its parents with equal probability. DE, however, uses a nonuniform crossover that can take child vector parameters from one parent more often than it does from the other. By using components of existing population members to construct trial vectors, recombination efficiently shuffles information about successful combinations, enabling the search for an optimum to focus on the most promising areas of the solution space.
Once new trial solutions have been generated, selection determines which among them will survive into the next generation. Most ES selection schemes are deterministic, meaning that only the fittest candidates from the combined parent and offspring populations are allowed to advance. Other selection mechanisms take a randomized approach. For example, tournament selection pits randomly paired vectors in a winner-takes-all competition in which the victor moves on and the vanquished is eliminated. DE's acceptance strategy resembles tournament selection except that each child is pitted against one of its parents, not against a randomly chosen competitor. Only the fitter of the two is then allowed to advance into the next generation.
Integer versus Floating Point
The first step in implementing any genetic algorithm is to decide how functional parameters should be encoded as genes. While many genetic algorithms have used integers to approximate continuous parameters, this choice limits the resolution with which an optimum can be located to the precision set by the number of bits in the integer. If the problem at hand exhibits a wide dynamic range, then very long integers must be used even though many bits probably won't be significant in the final answer. Instead of wasting bits on unused precision, most ES encode continuous parameters as floating-point numbers. Floating point not only uses computer resources efficiently, it also makes input and output transparent for the user. Parameters can be input, manipulated, and output as ordinary floating-point numbers without ever being reformatted as genes with a different binary representation.
XOR versus Add
Just as floating-point numbers are more appropriate than integers for representing points in continuous space, addition is more appropriate than random bit flipping for searching the continuum. Consider, for example, the consequences of using the logical exclusive OR (XOR) operator for mutating integers. To change a binary 16 (10000) into a binary 15 (01111) with an XOR operation requires inverting all five bits. In most bit-flipping schemes, a mutation of this magnitude would be rare even though transitions between adjacent integers ought to be among the most frequent. Consequently, disparities between the binary representations of adjacent numbers can be problematic when trying to conduct an incremental search. An early attempt to circumvent this adjacency problem was the development of Gray codes, named for Frank Gray, who patented the idea for use in shaft encoders. Gray's idea was to assign each integer an alternative binary representation so that adjacent integers could be transformed into one another with a single bit flip. Although using Gray codes often helps, gains are not dramatic.
A simpler way to restore the adjacency of neighboring points is to use addition as a mutation operator. Under addition, 16 becomes 15 simply by adding -1. Now the odds of a given transition depend only on the arithmetic difference between the numbers involved and not the bit patterns that are used to encode them. Adopting addition as a mutation operator to restore the adjacency of nearby points is not, however, a panacea. Once the switch from logical to arithmetic operators is made, the fundamental question concerning mutation is no longer which bits to flip, but rather how much to add. The simple adaptive scheme used by DE ensures that these mutation increments are automatically scaled to the correct magnitude.
DE at a Glance
The overall structure of the DE algorithm resembles that of most other population-based searches. The parallel version of DE maintains two arrays, each of which holds a population of NP, D-dimensional, real-valued vectors. The primary array holds the current vector population while the secondary array accumulates vectors that are selected for the next generation.
In each generation, NP competitions are held to determine the composition of the next generation. In particular, the ith competition pits the ith population vector, known as the "target," against its adversary, the trial vector. Not only does the target vector compete against the trial vector, it is also one of the trial vector's parents. The trial vector's other parent is a randomly chosen population vector to which a weighted random difference vector has been added. Mating between this noisy random vector and the target vector is controlled by a nonuniform crossover operation that determines which trial vector parameters are inherited from which parent. Should the cost of the trial vector turn out to be less than or equal to that of its parent target vector, the trial vector replaces the target as the ith population vector in the next generation. Figure 1 illustrates this procedure. In all, just three factors control evolution under DE: the population size, NP; the weight applied to the random differential, F; and the constant that mediates the crossover operation, CR.
Parameters in real-world problems generally exhibit restricted ranges over which it is sensible to search for a solution. Before DE can set about optimizing a function, these parameter limits should be established. In general, limits ought to be chosen so that they constrain parameters to physically attainable values. In optical design, for example, there are natural limits on how thick a lens can be, how steep curvatures can become, how closely components can be spaced, and so on. If, however, parameters do not correspond to physical quantities, then parameter ranges should be large enough to contain the suspected optimum. Unless instructed not to, DE can search beyond its specified limits, so even if the optimum is not contained within the initial bounding region, DE may still find it.
Once limits have been set, each parameter in every primary array vector is initialized with a uniformly distributed random value from within its allowed range. To determine and preserve the cost of the resulting initial population, each primary array vector is evaluated and the results are stored in the array, cost[].
Mutating with Vector Differentials
Early Evolutionary Strategies mutated vectors by adding zero-mean Gaussian noise to them. One consequence of this scheme is that the standard deviation of the Gaussian distribution determines the average mutation step size. When this step size is comparable to the standard deviation of the actual distribution of parameters in the population, mutation efficiency improves significantly. Unfortunately, the distributions of different parameters often exhibit different standard deviations because of disparities in scale and sensitivity. To remain efficient, an ES mutation scheme must adjust the standard deviation of the Gaussian noise to suit each parameter.
Not only is the most effective mutation step size a function of the parameter to which it is being applied -- it is also a function of time. Consequently, any source of mutating noise must also adapt to a vector population's evolving shape in solution space. Although measures can be taken to accommodate this mutation step size variability, the effort can be substantial.
A more convenient source of appropriately scaled perturbations is the population itself. Every pair of vectors, (Xa,Xb), defines a vector differential: Xa-Xb. When Xa and Xb are chosen randomly, their weighted difference can be used in place of Gaussian noise to perturb another vector, Xc. This process, which can be expressed mathematically as
is illustrated graphically in Figure 2. The scaling factor, F, is a user-supplied constant in the range: (0<F1.2). The upper limit of 1.2 was determined empirically. The optimal value of F for most functions lies in the range of 0.4 to 1.0.
By mutating vectors with population-derived noise, DE ensures that the solution space will be efficiently searched in each dimension. For example, if the population becomes compact in one dimension but remains widely dispersed along another, the differentials sampled from it will be small in one dimension yet large in the other. Whatever the case, step sizes will be comparable to the breadth of the region they are being used to search, even as these regions expand and contract during the course of evolution.
Once in every generation, each primary array vector, Xi for i=0,1, is targeted for recombination with a vector like Xc' to produce a trial vector, Xt. Thus, the trial vector is the child of two parents: a noisy random vector and the target vector against which it must compete.
Which parent contributes which trial vector parameter is determined by a series of D-1 binomial experiments. Each experiment, whose outcome is either success or failure, is mediated by the crossover constant, CR, where 0CR1. Starting at a randomly selected parameter, the source of each trial vector parameter is determined by comparing CR to a uniformly distributed random number from within the interval [0,1). If the random number is greater than CR, the trial vector gets its parameter from the target, Xi, otherwise, the parameter comes from the noisy random vector, Xc' (Figure 3). When CR=1, for example, every trial vector parameter is certain to come from Xc', making the trial vector an exact replica of the noisy random vector. If, on the other hand, CR=0, all but one trial vector parameter comes from the target vector. To ensure that Xt differs from Xi by at least one parameter, the final trial vector parameter always comes from the noisy random vector, even when CR=0.
Unlike many genetic algorithms, DE does not use proportional selection, ranking, or even an annealing criterion that would allow occasional uphill moves. Instead, the cost of each trial vector is compared to that of its parent target vector. The vector with the lower cost is rewarded by being allowed to advance to the secondary array. In addition, if the trial vector wins, its cost is stored in cost[i].
After each primary array vector has been a target for mutation, recombination, and selection, array pointers are swapped so that the roles of the two arrays are reversed. Thus, vectors in what was the secondary array become targets for transformation, while the former primary array now awaits winners of the next generation's competitions.
DE Pseudocode
Differential Evolution is one of those rare algorithms that possesses both simplicity and power. Nowhere is DE's simplicity better illustrated than in the 19 lines of C-style pseudocode in Listing One This accounting includes code for mutation, recombination, and selection, but excludes input/output routines, function descriptions, and initialization code. (The complete source code for both a C and a Matlab implementation of DE is available electronically; see "Availability," page 3, and at http://www.ICSI.Berkeley.edu/~storn/code.html.)
While algorithmic simplicity may be a virtue, without performance, it is irrelevant. The following example, while elementary, nevertheless demonstrates several powerful features of DE.
A Nasty Little Function
What makes a numerical optimization problem hard? Many dimensions, multiple local minima, flat surfaces, and nondifferentiability to name a few reasons. Although it is only two dimensional, the following problem generates a fitness landscape that is nondifferentiable at some points and has many local minima that are partially surrounded by a very flat surface. Given the function in Example 1(b), the problem is to find values for p1 and p2 such that f(x) will be constrained to the light-colored area of Figure 4.
Problems of this ilk occur in robotics where the goal is to steer a vehicle with the output of a simple function. Alternatively, f(x) could represent a filter function with a response that must conform to certain design constraints. Either way, the lack of an obvious analytical solution makes this problem an ideal candidate for DE's evolutionary approach.
Potential solutions to this problem are two-dimensional vectors with components that are the real-valued parameters, p1 and p2. A vector's quality can be evaluated by sampling the function it describes at evenly spaced points along the x-axis as indicated in Figure 4. Whenever the function strays outside of design limits, the deviations can be squared and then summed to provide a measure of that function's cost. Other measures, like the maximum deviation, will also work, but the sum of squared errors is more reliable because it provides information about the function's acceptability at more than one point. The landscape generated by this problem's cost function, g(p1,p2) is shown in Figure 5.
Despite this problem's treacherous fitness landscape, DE is up to the challenge. With settings of NP=10, CR=0.9, F=0.7, DE located this function's minima with an error of 1.0E-6 after a 100-trial average of only 314 function evaluations. Because it does not require resolution constraints, DE can continue to refine a solution until it exhausts the precision of its floating-point format.
Practical Advice
Choosing NP, F, and CR is seldom difficult and some general guidelines can be given. Ordinarily, NP ought to be about five to ten times the number of parameters in a vector. For the two-dimensional example mentioned, this rule suggests that NP=10 was a good starting point (NP=5D=10). As for F, try F=0.5 initially and then increase F and/or NP if the population converges prematurely. Values of F smaller than 0.4, like those greater than 1, are only occasionally effective.
A good first choice for CR is 0.1, but in general CR should be as large as possible without causing the population to become devoid of diversity. Consequently, you may first want to try CR=0.9 or CR=1.0 to see if a quick solution is possible before trying CR=0.1 or 0. In the end, considerable latitude is often available when choosing effective control constant combinations.
DE and DeJong
Although it is no longer considered to be a demanding test suite for numerical optimizers, the ubiquitous five-function DeJong test suite (Figure 6) nevertheless provides some insight into DE's abilities. Table 1 summarizes DE's performance as the average number of function evaluations needed to find each function's global minimum. Results are 100-trial averages. In each case, convergence to the global optimum was fast and regular.
A much more difficult set of test functions was the focus of a recent international competition for evolutionary optimizers in which DE was a participant. Among conference entries, DE proved to be the fastest evolutionary algorithm, although it did place third in speed behind two deterministic methods of limited application.
Differential Evolution is a design tool of great utility that is immediately accessible for practical applications. Among DE's advantages are its simple structure, ease of use, speed, and robustness.
Already, DE has been used to design several complex digital filters, the largest of which required tuning 60 parameters. Power like this enables nonspecialists to discover effective solutions to nearly intractable problems without appealing to expert knowledge or complex design algorithms. All one needs is a problem and a way to quantify the quality of its potential solutions. In some cases, this may be a formidable task, but if a system is amenable to being rationally evaluated, DE can provide the means for extracting the best possible performance from it.
Listing One
while (count < gen_max) /* Halt after gen_max generations. */{ for (i=0; i<NP; i++) /* Start loop through population. */ { /********** Mutate/recombine **********/ do a=rnd_uni()*NP; while (a==i); /* Randomly pick 3 vectors, */ do b=rnd_uni()*NP; while (b==i || b==a); /* all different */ do c=rnd_uni()*NP; while (c==i || c==a || c==b); /* from i. */ j=rnd_uni()*D; /* Randomly pick the first parameter. */ for (k=1; k<=D; k++) /* Load D parameters into trial[]. */ { /* Perform D-1 binomial trials. */ if (rnd_uni() < CR || k==D) /* Source for trial[j] is */ { /* a random vector plus weighted differential */ trial[j]=x1[c][j]+F*(x1[a][j]-x1[b][j]); /* or... */ } /* trial parameter comes from x1[i][j] itself. */ else trial[j]=x1[i][j]; j=(j+1)%D; /* get next parameter, modulo D. */ } /* Last parameter (k=D) comes from noisy random vector. */ /********** Evaluate/select **********/ score=evaluate(trial); /* Evaluate trial with your function. */ if (score<=cost[i]) /* If trial[] improves on x1[i][], */ { /* move trial[] to secondary array */ for (j=0; j<D; j++) x2[i][j]=trial[j]; cost[i]=score; /* and store improved cost */ } /* otherwise, move x1[i][] to secondary array. */ else for (j=0; j<D; j++) x2[i][j]=x1[i][j]; } /* Mutate/recombine next primary array vector. */ </p> /********** End of population loop; swap arrays **********/ for (i=0; i<NP; i++) /* After each generation, */ { /* move secondary array into primary array. */ for (j=0; j<D; j++) x1[i][j]=x2[i][j]; } /* ...or just swap pointers (not shown). */ count++; /* End of generation...increment counter. */ /********** End of generation **********/ } /* End of program. */
Copyright © 1997, Dr. Dobb's Journal


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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Five members of a gang known as the "Guardians" were sentenced to federal prison Friday.
According to the court, Maynard Godwin, 33, Andrew Wilkie, 31, and Eric Ellis, 28, were convicted of conspiracy and violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, better known as RICO. The three of them were each sentenced to more than 20 years in federal prison.
Billy James Harper, 31, and Brock Skov, 32, and Jonathan Hart, 31, were convicted of violating the RICO Act. Skov was sentenced to three years, five months in federal prison, and Harper was sentenced to eight years, four months in federal prison. A sentencing date for their sixth member, Hart, has not yet been scheduled.
According to authorities, the gang members were an organization said to be responsible for multiple armed home invasion robberies, armed bank robberies, extortion, witness intimidation, possession of illegal firearms, distribution of stolen merchandise and the distribution of cocaine, oxycodone and anabolic steroids.
Godwin had formed his own gang inspired by the television show "Sons of Anarchy," according to court documents. Godwin called himself the "Boss," Wilkie was called the "Enforcer," Harper was known as the "Lieutenant" and Skov was called the "Technician." Ellis and Hart were said by authorities to be associates of the gang.
Authorities say arrests were made in November 2010 when an investigation revealed that the gang was preparing to commit additional home invasion robberies. The robberies committed by the Guardians resulted in the loss of almost $2 million to their victims.


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Product Details
David Yurman chains are inspired by classical and original motifs, and are meticulously crafted by artisans. Each is designed to be worn alone, layered, or complemented with unique pendants or amulets from our other collections.
Style Number: CH0104MSS
Fit & Care
Metal: Use the provided polishing cloth to gently wipe this item clean, then remove any remaining tarnish with mild diluted soap. Rinse with warm water and dry the design thoroughly before storing in the provided jewelry pouch. Please note: styles featuring meteorite should not be exposed to water.


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text:
New Brompton Bike Updates
We have unveiled a selection of exciting bike updates which are now available as standard on new bike purchases. In these updates, we have focused on the controls of the bike, reviewing the entire cockpit set up as a group including handlebar, grips, brake levers, gear shifters and bell. The improvements have put ergonomic design at the centre to deliver a more enjoyable ride and a premium feel.
You can configure a custom built bike to suit your needs via our online Bike Builder—build your bike here!
Updated colour options: two new colours have been added to the colour palette, a grey and a bright red; all standard colour options are now priced equally, allowing you to mix and match up to two colour choices on your custom bike without any additional cost.
Evolved handlebar shape: increasing the length of the stem allows the handlebar a more relaxed geometry resulting in a stiffer, more modern looking handlebar and increased horizontal grip area.
Ergonomic underbar gear shifters: updated shifters are now mounted to the brake lever allowing for better control of the bicycle while shifting.
Saddle and Lights
Collaboration with Cateye for new USB saddle light: an exclusive collaboration with Cateye to develop a custom mount for its USB chargeable Rapid Mini Light offering minimalist style without sacrificing maximum eye-catching illumination.
Wider saddle option: Brompton saddles are now available in two different saddle widths of Standard (147mm) and Wide (167mm) for extra comfort for all riders.
Grips and Bell
Lock on grips: the new lock on grips are the lightest available on the market (42g) and will be fitted to all M, S and H Type handlebars.
Bell and brake lever integration: the brass bell has been fitted into the brake lever making it faster and easier to operate.
Brompton Bicycle, the UK's largest bike manufacturer, has announced a second special edition production run of the immensely popular Black Edition bike, after the first run of the Black Edition quickly sold out after production in March 2015. More info...
Brompton Folding Bikes
All Bromptons are designed and built in our factory in West London, England. Brompton is one of only two major frame manufacturers still based in the UK, and we have been in full production since 1988. The company has come a long way since its initial production facility in a railway arch, and the current site occupies 22,000 ft (some 2,000m).
The company remains in private hands and is now led by Will Butler-Adams, though the Brompton's inventor, Andrew Ritchie, continues to act as Technical Director. Private ownership has played a big part in making Brompton successful as we have always been able to focus solely on the bike, never the demands of corporate shareholders.
Today, Bromptons are sold in 27 export markets. In the UK and USA, we sell directly to carefully-selected bicycle retailers; in other territories, we sell to distributors who operate their own dealer networks.
- View the Brompton brochure for more information on configuration options.
- Learn more about our history.
- The New 2016 Brompton Luggage Line
- Made In London


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Difference between revisions of "Field Methods in Fish Biology 2013"
From EEBedia
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| '''TH''' 20 June

 || Data collection guidelines

 || Backpack electrofish Fenton River with Dr. Jason Vokoun

 || Field Exercise report II due Friday

| '''TH''' 20 June

 || Data collection guidelines

 || Backpack electrofish Fenton River with Dr. Jason Vokoun

 || Field Exercise report II due Friday

Revision as of 21:01, 19 June 2013
EEB 3898 Field Methods in Fish Biology
Summer Intensive I, 2013
Course Duration: June 10th - June 28th, 2013
Meeting Time: Monday through Friday, 1:00 - 4:00pm in TLS371
Welcome to Field Methods in Fish Biology! This course is a hands-on, field based introduction to the biology of fishes and field sampling methods, with emphasis on local species.
Jonathan Velotta
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Office: Biology/Pharmacy 201
Phone: (860) 486-4694
Mobile: (203) 394-7815
Office hours: by appointment
Syllabus and Course Information
Working Schedule
| M 10 June
| Introduction to fish biology and field methods
| External Anatomy and finding and measuring characters
External anatomy and morphometrics and meristics
|Finish Lab exercise in notebook; Readings: Field Notebook Guidelines ; How to read a science article
| T 11 June
| Freshwater fishes I; Lake habitats; active gear
| Beach seine Bicentennial Pond
| Readings: Poos et al 2007 JFB; discussion on Thurs
| W 12 June
| Field trip!
| Beach seine Coventry Lake
| Readings: Fink et al., 1979 (Section I)
| TH 13 June
| Freshwater fishes II; electroshocking gear; River habitats; Species identification and curation of fish collections
| Identify, fix and preserve fish
Fish Fixation/Preservation Protocol
| Quiz I study
Field exercise report I due Monday
Field Exercise Report Guidelines
| F 14 June
| Quiz I
| Purse seine Crystal Lake
| Finish field exercise report I
| M 17 June
| Freshwater fishes III; passive gear
| Preserve and accession fish into collection
Field Methods in Fish Biology Biodiversity Collection Sheet1
| Flammang and Schultz 2004 hoop nets
| T 18 June
| Meet at 12:30pm
| Boat electrofishing Coventry Lake with DEEP and retrieval of hoop nets
| Exam I study; field notebooks due Wed.
| W 19 June
| Exam I - field notebooks due!
Saltwater fishes of CT; fish assemblages
| TH 20 June
| Data collection guidelines
| Backpack electrofish Fenton River with Dr. Jason Vokoun
|http://hydrodictyon.eeb.uconn.edu/courses/fieldichth/restricted/Field%20Report%20II%20guidelines.pdf}} Field Report II guidelines
| F 21 June
| Quiz II
| Seine Morris Cove with NOAA
| Quiz II Monday
Reading: Neff et al. 2007, bluegill nesting behavior
| M 24 June
| Quiz II
Visual observations
| Visual observation field trip; specimen preservation time
| Field exercise report III due Tuesday
| T 25 June
| Pop and community ecology project data collection
| Reading: ; write Introduction and Methods of final report due Thursday
| W 26 June
| Data analysis guidelines
| Pop and community ecology project data collection
| Begin data analysis
| TH 27 June
| Age analysis using scales; more data analysis
| Ageing of focal species by scales; finalize biodiversity collection
| Exam II study; write report Discussion and finish report
| F 28 June
| Exam II
Final report due at 5pm by e-mail
[*changes to our field trip itinerary may be made pending weather, etc.]
Web Resources


text:
The Word "Mother"–True Meaning of "Mother"
True meaning of "Mother":
"M" is for the million things you gave me. Actually, it's probably a billion.
"O" means that you're growing old, but you still have the pomp in your step.
"T" is for the tears you've shed to save me. Thank you for always being there.
"H" is for your heart of purest gold. Actually, it's priceless.
"E" is for your eyes with love-light shining, just plain beautiful.
"R" is for right; and right you'll always be. Your guidance is priceless.
Today, we celebrate you, our dear mothers.
Wishing you a Happy Mother's Day! WE LOVE YOU!
|PowerPoint: The Word "Mother"–True Meaning of "Mother"
|Convert PowerPoint to Video
|Video: The Word "Mother"–True Meaning of "Mother"
|Download PowerPoint Presentation
|Watch on Youtube


text:
California: Feather River Salmon Season Starts
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is reminding anglers of the fishing regulations for the 2013 salmon season on the Feather River.
The regulations are effective Tuesday, July 16. The California Fish and Game Commission adopts yearly regulations to help ensure the health of fish populations and give anglers an opportunity to enjoy fishing.
Feather River Regulations:
From the unimproved boat launch ramp above the Thermalito Afterbay Outfall to 200 yards above the Live Oak boat ramp, open July 16 through Oct. 15.
From 200 yards above the Live Oak boat ramp to the mouth of the river, open July 16 through Dec. 16.
Daily bag and possession limit of two Chinook salmon for all open areas.
All salmon and steelhead taken in inland waters must be kept in such a condition that species and size can be determined until placed at the angler's permanent residence, a commercial preservation facility or being prepared for immediate consumption.
See Section 1.45 of the 2013-2014 Freshwater Sports Fishing Regulations for more details.
The area around the Thermalito Afterbay outfall is open to fishing this year, however the outlet structure itself is closed to the public.
This outlet structure is owned by the Department of Water Resources and is a part of the State Water Project that allows for the discharge of water from the Thermalito Afterbay to the Feather River below Lake Oroville. Consistent with the California Penal Code Section 602, persons found trespassing onto the outlet structure may be cited.
Last year, a temporary 250 foot closure was placed around the outlet structure. That temporary closure expired in February 2013.
All other regulations for bag and possession limits for trout, salmon and other species, as well as general information about restrictions on fishing methods and gear are available on the CDFW website at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/regulations


text:
|Community Calendar - EMEA - Local Chapters: Denmark
|Upcoming Past Month View Group Home
Here you can find out about upcoming events and view photo galleries of past events. Some events may allow for online registration and the ticket purchase. Click the event name to view more details.
Displaying page 1 of 1


text:
To join NAN, you can download and print out a membership application and mail/fax in with supporting materials and payment, or you can join online. Instructions for joining online are below:
Click here to create an online account. An e-mail will be sent to you to register the account and set up your username and password.
Click here to access the online membership application. You will be prompted to log in using the username and password you just created.
If you have any questions, or need any assistance, please contact the NAN Office at 303-691-3694, or by e-mail at firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
Let's reshape the future of women and girls by making it easier for them to speak up.
A lot of people have reacted to this conference by saying "we shouldn't need TEDWomen" and that they find it offensive, a way to put women speakers in a ghetto, or help we should reject. But I think we do need TEDWomen, as long as we're still repeating four ancient and durable myths about women and public speaking--and keeping them off programs. I'm here to ask you to stop spreading those myths, which have been hanging around for centuries. I'm here to change how we operate when it comes to women and public speaking. But first, a little his-tory lesson.
Kathleen Hall Jamieson has spent much of her career looking at eloquence and public speech. She sums it up this way: "History has many themes. One of them is that women should be quiet." From the days of ancient Greece and Rome right into this century, women who attempt public speaking have had a steep uphill climb. Aristotle thought women should not exert their minds, lest they risk their childbearing abilities. Some effective woman speakers in that day were considered androgynous--they couldn't possibly be women if they spoke well. Centuries later, men would accuse Sojourner Truth of being a man--it was impossible for her to speak so movingly as a women, they said.
The women who launched America's effort to get the vote for women did so in part because they could not speak at conferences to which they'd been invited as delegates. Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of the best-seller of her time, went on a book tour and in some places, watched her husband read her speech while she had to sit in a gallery.
Throughout our history and around the world, women who were silent and refrained from speaking in public were praised as chaste, womanly, holy, sober and appropriate. Women who spoke or spoke up, in contrast, were whores, witches, bitches, shrill, scolds, hysterics and nags. Those are slurs we still use today about talkative women, but they are centuries old. All that name-calling had one goal: To get women to be quiet. But if you think the examples I just shared are outdated--that's so 1673--let me share their modern counterparts:
- Social media researcher Danah Boyd was presenting a keynote speech to a major technology conference with the Twitter stream of audience comments behind her as she spoke. That's how we know what men in the audience were thinking, because some of them posted tweets speculating what it would be like to "do" her -- that's the polite version -- with their comments in full view of everyone but the speaker. The organizers took the projection down, then put it back up when audience members objected. Later, the men removed their comments, but the damage was done.
- We're not doing any better when it comes to visible role models of women as respected speakers. While there are female news anchors and reporters, the sources and pundits that they interview are primarily male. That's true on news outlets like Politico, NPR, the Sunday morning television public affairs shows and most op-ed pages in newspapers around the United States, according to studies done as recently as this year.
- We're ignoring women when they do speak up--and taking credit for their ideas a few minutes later. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz -- two of the most powerful women in the U.S. -- both have said publicly in recent months that this happens to them all the time.
Then there's public speaking, always daunting. Let's face it: Public speaking is an act of boldness and audacity, wrapped in three dimensions, with all the volume, movement, eye contact and physicality that's lacking when we restrict ourselves to written, rather than spoken words. Trust me, it takes a lot of nerve to get on a big stage like this one.
But it's more than bravado. A speaker can reach out and touch you, physically as well as emotionally. You can ask her questions, and hear her answers, something no book can do. And it's almost impossible to do anonymously, which makes it more dangerous than writing...one reason, I believe, that we have far more women writers we can point to with pride than women speakers. Just as learning to read has been the ticket to advancement for millions around the world, learning to speak, and speak effectively--and getting the chance to do so--is an even more powerful path to advancement.
Maybe that's why, even today, we continue to spread four myths about women and public speaking. These durable myths are repeated by men and women. I'll bet, once you hear them, that you'll recognize them--not just because you've heard them, but because you've repeated them.
And that's why I'm here today: To bust these myths, and to ask you to share that new knowledge with others once you leave here today. You're about to see dozens of women and men speaking with heart and inspiration and insight. We don't use these myths to silence men, so let's all agree to stop using them to silence women. Here they are:
- Women talk more than men do. This one has been used for years to embarrass women into silence. Researchers say that men and women describe the gap in detail, and everyone thinks the gap is huge--some estimates in popular culture say that women speak 20,000 words a day, but men speak just 7,000. Here's reality: Research shows that women and men speak about the same number of words every day, on average: 16,000.
- We can't find any women qualified to be speakers. This is one way women are challenged and put on the defensive in program committee meetings or when they seek speaking gigs. It's not a numbers issue: Even in professions where women dominate, they often are still in the minority as speakers on professional society conference programs, research shows. Historically, efforts to keep women from speaking in public were blatant and noticeable; today, it may have gone underground, but it's still a formidable barrier. If you need to find some great women speakers, start right here and network all around you.
- Women get ignored in meetings because they aren't as good at men at speaking up. In fact, women can be just as effective as men in communicating, yet their points are more frequently ignored--or claimed by others as their own. A string of studies has shown that women are responded to more negatively than men when they speak up. This myth belies an underlying attitude that's especially tough to shake.
- It's women's speaking style that sets them back--they're too emotional and not tough enough. This myth has pushed many women in public life into mimicking a traditional male style of speaking that's louder, more forceful and strident, and less emotional--even though that strong preference for one-on-one connections makes women especially well-suited to connect with an audience Observers note that this is a double-edge sword for women speakers. Ironically, women who are discredited in other ways can't afford to adopt what may be seen as a weak speaking style--which takes a natural advantage away from them.
Go here to subscribe to Step Up Your Speaking, my free monthly newsletter..then become a fan of The Eloquent Woman on Facebook and join the conversation with thousands of other women (and men) about public speaking skills and confidence.


text:
A collection of scholarly works about individual liberty and free markets. A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.
1742 - 1798
Historical Period:
The 18th Century
James Wilson (1742-1798) signed the Declaration of Independence and was twice elected to the Continental Congress. He played a leading role in the drafting of the US Constitution and eventually became one of the six original justices appointed by George Washington to the United States Supreme Court.